ABSTRACT

This study examined the distinct exigency of a compounding crisis, a crisis that occurs in close succession to another (potentially unrelated) crisis before an organization has had the opportunity to rebuild legitimacy. Specifically, we identified the public relations challenges faced by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency during the formaldehyde travel trailer crisis and examined how the Hurricane Katrina crisis encumbered the agency’s response efforts. We offer a theoretical frame for understanding the public relations challenges inherent in compounding crises and propose that, in a compounding crisis, organizational legitimacy and social capital decrease while stakeholder risk perceptions and attribution of crisis responsibility increase. A new phenomenon termed the pariah effect is offered to explain when an organization experiencing a compounding crisis is ostracized by other organizations that could assist with the crisis response to avoid negative spillover effects that could result from associating with the offending organization. This study also demonstrates how attribution of responsibility in a compounding crisis can create an exigency in which an organization must take actions beyond the scope and original mission of the organization.

摘要

这项研究检查了复合危机的独特紧迫性，这种危机是在组织有机会重建合法性之前紧接另一种（可能不相关的）危机发生的。具体来说，我们确定了美国联邦紧急事务管理局在甲醛旅行拖车危机期间面临的公共关系挑战，并研究了卡特里娜飓风危机如何阻碍了该机构的应对工作。我们提供了一个理论框架来理解危机加剧中固有的公共关系挑战，并提出在危机加剧中，组织的合法性和社会资本下降，而利益相关者的风险感知和危机责任归属增加。一种新现象称为贱民效应本文提供了一个解释，说明正在经历复杂性危机的组织何时被其他组织排斥，这些组织可以协助应对危机，从而避免与违规组织联系可能造成的负面溢出影响。这项研究还表明，在复杂化的危机中，责任的归属如何造成紧急情况，在这种紧急情况下，组织必须采取超出组织范围和原始使命的行动。